SIZE OF OYSTERS Minister Hopes To Raise Minimum

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31623, 8 March 1968, Page 10

SIZE OF OYSTERS Minister Hopes To Raise Minimum

(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, March 6. The Minister of Marine (Mr Scott) said in Invercargill today that he was still convinced that the minimum size of Foveaux Strait oysters should be raised from 2 l-Bin to 2 l-4in.

He said research had shown that the oysters around 2 l-Bin were the very ones which were going to reproduce, and therefore keep the oyster beds well stocked.

He said a change in the minimum size of oysters, and the imposition of limits on each season's catch, would be discussed at a meeting with oystermen in Invercargill tomorrow morning. “Our aim is the maintenance and development of our fishery resources. This is in the interests of the industry in the long term, even if it might be unpalatable at the moment,” Mr Scott said. Mr Scott confirmed that the Marine Department would establish a trial plot to experiment with the farming of Foveaux Strait oysters. A biologist, charged with continuing the investigation into Foveaux Strait oysters, would take up his position at Bluff at the end of this month. A small part of his work would be investigating the possibilities of farming Bluff oysters on a commercial basis.

Meantime, it was hoped that legislation would be enacted this year to make the farming of shellfish legal in New Zealand. The long-term plan was to allow private enterprise to set up oyster farms and there had already been some inquiries about this possibility from oyster industry people locally. In Northland, rock oyster farming was proving successful. There, farms were let in five-acre lots. It was not

known at this stage what area would be required for farming Bluff oysters, Mr Scott sgid.